SW Corner of NW 36th and Grand. No access from Grand. Enter from either driveway on 36th.

.

MAIN SPEAKER:
Greg Hannaford from Tulsa/NEOBA, will be speaking about late summer issues such as Varroa Mites and Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS), feeding, and common misconceptions about queens this time of year.

.

HONEY TASTING:
Bring some honey from this year’s crop for everyone to sample.

Please bring a snack to share with others. COBA provides beverages, but other items are brought by those attending.

Members are invited to bring a bee-related item for the door prize drawing.

We will be MOVING a hive into the location, and, after a few minutes, inspecting it. This is an opportunity to see how to move a hive. It will be in double deeps, but isn’t full strength.

The colony there before swarmed itself into oblivion. If there’s anything left, we’ll demonstrate how to do a masking spray merge of two colonies

The new colony will be in double deeps, but isn’t full strength. We’ll see brood at all stages, and maybe the queen. Last time we got to see several new adults emerging from their cells.

Pertinent Q&A will occur during the inspection, and general Q&A can be continued after the inspection is complete.

October 2017 and February/March 2018 Students are especially invited, but others are welcome too.

POST SESSION UPDATE:

We had a nice turnout of 5 today, and were there about 2 hours.

We demonstrated how to configure a hive for moving, and moved one into the yard. We inspected the colony we were expecting to replace, and it was doing so much better that we decided to leave it in place.

We moved the new colony onto an empty stand. We demonstrated how to trigger reorientation.

During inspection, the beekeepers got to see capped honey, nectar, queen cups, eggs, larvae from 1 day and older, capped brood, emerging brood, and the queen. We saw 1 hive beetle, and evidence of varroa mites.

After the inspection, we chatted a while about whatever topics the beekeepers desired.

The May Meeting of the Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association was called to order by president Rick Schantz at 7pm. We opened with the prayer and pledge of allegiance. The business meeting was called to order directly after.

Old Business

Our first shadowing opportunity will take place Saturday May 26th at 11am at Will Rogers Gardens. It is open to any COBA members who want to attend. Rick Schantz will meet people in the parking lot at 11. Bring your bee suit when you come to attend these.
June 15th-23rd is the Myriad Gardens event they have invited us to join. It will be 9am-3pm. We will need some volunteers and will have a sign up sheet at the next meeting.

New Business
We held an executive officer meeting and have discussed and voted on 4 things:
1). Should the club buy a laptop for club uses- voted no unanimously
2). Nothing that is a conflict of interest will be allowed to be posted on our facebook group. Example: classes etc.
3). If a post is deleted and someone wants it reposted they have to contact Rick Schantz or John Bowman to make the decision.
4). An event coordinator whom will be Forest G.

The business meeting was called to a close at 7:30 pm.

The presentation at the meeting was two parts the first was presented by Rick Schantz. Rick talked about common problem with bees and bee hives; From absconding, swarms, pests, disease, and colony collapse disorder. After his presentation he opened it up to Q&A. After the break Wyndell Scott did a presentation on cutouts and the best way he has found to save the bees while doing a cutout. Catching swarms and some of his best tips on how he has had success at cutouts and swarms. He had 3 videos he presented with some interesting tools in them. After the Q&A we had our drawing and closed our meeting at 9PM.

The meeting was called to order at 7pm. The meeting opened with the pledge and prayer. The business meeting was called to order at 7:15pm.

Old business:

We are still trying to work out the details of the new mentor program we would like to start.

T-shirts are still for sale and available at lettering express. Located on Reno ave in Oklahoma City.

New Business:

The outdoor Feast has asked us to come out and hand out information and have an observation hive May 19th 2-9pm. Any volunteers that want to do this event can message Rick Schantz or comment on the facebook post for the information.

The business was called to a close at 7:30

John Bowman gave a small presentation about some of the things he learned while visiting another bee club; on cutouts, pollen feeders, chicken wire on farms to hold on comb, and swarm traps.

Our plant specialist who’s name is Jamie works in the horticultural department at OSU okc. He brought many different plants that are bee friendly. He gave a great description of integrated pest management as well as the plants he brought. He provided a website where we could get some of the information he gave us it is xerces.org/factsheets. He also invited us the the plant sale at OSU okc for the final weekend.

After the speaker we had the drawing and gave away all the plants he brought to talk about.

The March meeting of COBA was called to order at 7:00pm. We started with the blessing and pledge of allegiance. We had announcements followed by a short business meeting then the presentation.

The meeting started with some announcements:

1). Osu Okc plant sale will be April 4th from 7:00-5:30. Held at the teaching green houses.

2).Garden festival in the park will be May 19th from 9:00-4:00. Held at will rogers gardens conservatory. Applications are available upon request.

3).urban mission 3737 N. Portland April 28th from 9:00-1:00

Business meeting called to order at 7:10pm

Old business-

1).OSBA needs nominations for officers. Ideas for speakers. We voted to have the fall conference catered.

2).We are still working out the details on the new shadowing mentor program.

3). A sign up sheet will be available at the nest meeting for the existing mentor program. So anyone who wants to be a mentor can sign up and anyone looking for a mentor can find one close to them.

4). The decision made at the spring conference was to leave the booth at the state fair ran by OSBA.

5). OSBA voted and decided there will be no honey sales at the booth at the state fair this year.

6). Dawn Schantz will bring a hive to will rogers gardens for the new shadow/mentoring program.

New business

1). COBA has been invited as a club to do the winne the poo event at the myriad gardens event. The event will be held June 8th-!7th. We will take a COBA banner for the table. Any honey sold has to be in bears. Health department will require all people to individually turn in their status ( Hobbyist or Bottling company) so proper fees can be assessed individually. All people selling honey must have state sales tax certificate made readily available. A 15% fee on all sales will be required.

2). Anyone wanting a t-shirt can go to lettering express in okc they have our logo on file and can make any t-shirt $6-$12 (long sleeve short sleeve or tank) or hoodie in any number or color you would like. Just tell them you are a COBA member.

3). We may have found someone who can host the extractor for the north west side of town.

The business meeting was called to a close at 7:30pm

Presentation is on making splits:

There are many ways to split your hives.

Buying nucs

Buying packages

Stove top or stack splits

Two box splits

And more than a dozen more ways

One of the most important key aspects of making splits is queens. Are you going to graft your own queen? Are you going to buy a bread queen? Are you going to buy queen cells? Are you going to use swarm cells you find upon inspection of one of your other hives? You need to do some research into what might be the best option for you when it comes to queens because what works for one wont necessarily work for another person.

In Oklahoma when splitting hives you need to consider the size of the hive you are splitting because in Oklahoma generally you will not make very much honey if any if you split the hive to much. So you need to think about what might be more important to you honey or more hives.

Another thing to look at is disease. If you had a hive that died and you are starting a new hive to replace that hive you need to determine what the previous hive died from. You need to do some research some about different diseases and take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of what ever it was.

You will need at least 2 frames of brood lots of bees and a frame or two of honey to make a split. Always when splitting a hive you need to feed them for at least the first two weeks until the can get established. If you are using cells in Oklahoma you need to check the weather to make sure we will have sunny weather so the new queen can take her mating flight. Check the new split about once a week to make sure they are getting established and make the necessary measures to make sure they survive.